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Michael McLeod

I can't tell you, here at the end of the term, how soul-crushing it is to bust your ass trying to make students appreciate the process of writing well - that it's good for the soul to sweat it out putting things just the right way, that a well-shaped sentence has a beauty to it, and if you make one you should take pride in it.

And then you get the term papers and a percentage of the class, you know damn well, turned in papers written by those artificial intelligence programs.

I wish I could describe the feeling that gives me in the pit of my stomach.

It's like being betrayed by a friend you confided in, a friend you opened yourself up to and thought you could trust.  

The only thing that pulls me out of it is hearing from students who genuinely appreciated the course.

When I get the chance, over the summer, I'll be reading up on the subject to see how other teachers have contended with it. 

But hey, thanks for listening. Just writing that down gave me the idea that I'll start my class next fall with words to that effect. See if I can at least make them feel guilty about it.

Janie Albright (Blank)

MM, love the article you posted on the Million dollar $$ plus home on E N Broadway. I've always thought that street was beautiful. 

Joseph Gentilini

Michael, I appreciate your frustration at trying to educate students who aren't interested in what you have to teach.  When I was working on my PhD at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio I taught an interpersonal communication course as a teaching assistant.  These students were either juniors or seniors and so had had two or three years of passing courses.  Part of the requirements in my classes were to turn in a reaction or intergration paper every week on anything I taught or was talked about in our discussions, along with a term paper.  I was amazed at the papers I received.  Some had no punctuation, no capitalizations, no correct sentence structure, misspellings, etc.  I told them upfront that if I received a paper with poor spelling, The 'integration' papers were not graded, but it would reflect in the grades if they were not turned in.  I was still shocked, however.  If they turned a term paper in with poor spelling, etc., it would reflect on their grades.  They objected saying that I was not teaching an English grammar course.  I told them that they were correct that I was not teaching a grammar course, but added that they were upperclass students with access to dictionaries and spell checkers and therefore could do better.  I also told them that they were going to be graduating and entering the business world in some way - they should know better!  How in the hell did they ever get to my class and not have some teacher before me address this issue?!  Joe

Janie Albright (Blank)

Mark, I remember your mother. Your tribute is beautiful. Thinking how long- suffering they were with so many children, and not the conveniences of today, although way more than their own mothers I suppose. We were lucky and blessed to have them! 
 

Joseph Gentilini

Well, it looks as if I made mistakes in my previous response - mea culpa!  I think you at least know what I was trying to say.  I should have proof-read it before I hit submit! 

Michael McLeod

Joe: you can edit your message. There should be an "edit" on the banner across the top. Click on it. Then fix and resubmit. 

Anyway you should have told your students: God is in the details.

Because by golly She is.

On the other hand you could just have a.i. make your posts.

Michael McLeod

Hey dave my dad went to north high too.

I remember him singing a song: "north high will shine tonight, north high will shine." 

Joseph Gentilini

Thanks Mike - I only see a spell checker, but maybe that would have caught it for me or alerted me to the issue.  Oh well, it is what it is.  Thanks for the tip.  joe

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike,

Obviously, your students were not taught by nuns in grade school. 

Jim

David Mitchell

Joe and Mike,

This stuff takes me back to my story earlier about Keith Groff and his quote,     "I was taught by Dominican nuns." 

I am also reminded of a similar story from a friend who taught freshman engineering studetns at Ohio State. He told me that most of the entering freshmen were so poorly prepared in Math that he had to go back and spend about the first 6 weeks reviewing high school algebra. I dare say Sister Norbertine would not have left us wanting in that subject either. 

David Mitchell

Life's Disappointments

Even the average sports fan will be aware that we are entering the season for NFL "roookie training camp". Right now, across the country, NFL teams are holding early drills to get a first look at their new class of rookies. Out of these early sessions, there will be some great players that emerge. And there will also be some disappointments - guys who's hopes for an NFL carreer end here.

I was just recalling one such guy - one of my favorites from Ohio State back in our high school days. He became the final cut at the Cleveland Browns training camp in (I think?)1962. He was trying out as a wide reciever, and so was his training camp roommate - both rookies.

But the Browns kept his roommate because he was not only a fine Wide Receiver, but also great punter. His name was Garry Collins (from Maryland if memory serves) and he went on to become a geat Wide Reciver AND a great Punter.

So the dream of becoming a Cleveland Brown ended for this Buckeye.

Too bad.

I mean, too bad for the Browns.

Hellooo Boston Celtics!!!

Joseph Gentilini

David, Sister Norbertine (changed her name to Gertrude) was the best math teacheI I ever had and math was not my best subject or interest. Thanks for bringing her name up - good memories.  i remember how awful JFK's death hit her.

Michael McLeod

(raises hand) saint norbert was a german nobleman who was struck by a bolt of lightening. He survived intact. I doubt we could say the same for his shorts. He founded the norbertine order. It would have been cool if he had them all have little lightening bolt insignias as their trademark. better still, tatoos.

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

MM, thanks for posting the photo of the Clintonville house (a street over from ours on Clinton Heights Av).  It has brought back memories to various Kelley siblings.  I must admit that they were a little surprised to think that I might be suscribed to the Clintonville Spotlight!  

 My brother Steve (Class of ´61) remembers hanging out with Tim Pond there where they would actually shoot hoops in the turret (the hoop was attached to the wall). My sister Linda remembers frequent visits many years later with her friend Molly Echenrode.

Mark, thanks for sharing your song dedicated to your mother.  I think we can all identify with a lot of the sentiments you expressed.

Mike, sorry that you were "hit" with some of the AI consequences so early on.  It looks like we are just getting started.

Janie Albright (Blank)

Joe, following up on Mike's advice on editing a post you've already submitted, if you don't see the edit or delete choices you aren't logged on. Once you are logged on you can go to your post and click on edit button. If you are just responding to the email notification that there are new posts you can read them but you might not be logged on and you won't see those choices. 
 

David Mitchell

Joe,

I was not aware that Sister Norbertine had changed her name. What a fun memory she was!

I must admit, I think she was an outstanding Algebra teacher, but oh, what a funny character! Her animated personality, that serious lisp, and her expressions, were a source of much commentary back in the day. One of my favorites was when she caught someone not paying attention she would roll her head over the sky and say, "Come day, go day, God send Sunday".

I was somehow placed in the faster math classes  with the likes of the Hodges, Yarborough, Roach crowd (God only knows why). Charlie Kaps was also in those classes with us and he and I were contsantly interrupting her with questions - I mean maybe six or eight times a day. She would stop, roll her eyes in dusgust, and call on us. One time when she had just about had her fill of my questions she said, "Michael" (she always called me Michael) "you are sccchhhlow to grassssspp. But once you have it, you never forget it."  

And who could forget her "rosary repair business". She kept that tiny pair of needle nosed pliers, and her supply of links and beads on her waist belt - ready for service at all times.

Speaking of her name, I just now put two and two together - I think Steve Hodges religious order is the Norbertine Fathers

Joseph Gentilini

David, I am not sure when she actually changed her name - sometime after Vatican II.  I forgot the lisp and the clicking dentures which obviously did not fit  well.  She had a picture of JFK right behind her desk next to the windows and we very upset when he died.  I was also placed with the smart classmates (Hodges, Reid, etc.), but I learned my Algebra 1.  Unfortunately, I was then placed with the smart ones again for Geometry which i found difficult.  I really was over my head in Algebra 2 and Trig with Sister Mary Malcom (who changed her name later to Loreen (Sp?) and I scraped by only.  She never smiled.  When it came to Calculus and Physics in my senior year, I decided not to take those courses.  As I remember I only got Cs with Algebra 2 and Trig so why would I not get Cs or even Ds in those senior courses.  I went to Sr. Gertrude's funeral which was an eye-opener.  Gertrude had thought of suicide at one point and didn't think she would go to heaven.  Thank God, the sister in charge when Gertrude was in Mohan Hall (the sisters nursing  home), helped her to see that she would go to heaven.  joe

Joseph Gentilini

I also remember the story (although I was not in the class when it happened) that her dentures fell out into her hands.  That would have been funny and sad at the same time.  Does anyone remember Sister ? in Homeroom11?  I can't remember her name, but she was very old.  I heard that she watered her plastic flowers on the window ledge every morning.  One day, someone tied very thin string to the flowers and as she watered them, the 'grew.'  Wonder if that story is true.  Also Sister Hillary who taught math, I think) that freshman year.  Someone put a dead fish in her drawer which she later found.  Is that story true also? 

Bill Reid

Ok, it's time for me to go to public confession, after all these years. I was the one Joe Gentilini refers to in his post. I sat near the window in Sister Francesca's homeroom #111. We all knew she watered her plastic flowers, which sat in a flowerpot on the window ledge. So one day I tied a thread to the plastic flowers, looped the thread over the handle that opened the windows (no air conditioning back then, I guess) and held the thread under my seat. When Sister Francesca came over to water her flowers, I tugged on the string and the flowers popped up an inch or so. She stopped, had a look of wonder on her face, and then watered them again. I again pulled on the thread and the flowers "grew" another inch. She stopped again with a quizzical look on her face, and then said, "Well, it's about time they grew!". Needless to say, muffled laughter reigned in the room. I've not admitted to doing this for many years but Joe's posting prompts me to come clean about my misbehavior. Poor Sister Francesca! She gave us lots to laugh about; what unruly teenagers we were back then! or, maybe, just me!!!

Michael McLeod

I pity you, Bill. You're gonna be doing some hard time in purgatory for that.

James Hamilton, M. D.

The Power of Nature

Forty-three years ago this morning Mt. Saint Helens erupted. Late that afternoon when I left work my car was enshrouded in a fine silver-gray powder of volcanic ash, 1320 miles from that blast. 

Jim

David Mitchell

Bill,

I can just hear "Geraldine" (Flip Wilson) offering the same excuse you would have used - "da debil made me do dat" .

Joseph Gentilini

Okay, Bill, you are absolved but what type of penance should you do for such a horrible thing to do to an old woman who probably had difficulty knowing reality from fantasy?  She will be waiting for you in heaven expecting a real apology!  HA!

John Maxwell

David Mitchell

"Kirk,,, out"